Abd-al-Rahman I of Cordoba

Abd-al-Rahman I of Cordoba (1 March 731-7 October 788) was the Emir of the Cordoba Emirate from 756 to 788, succeeding Marwan II of the Umayyad Caliphate and preceding Hisham I of Cordoba.

Biography
Abd-al-Rahman was born on 1 March 731 to Mu'awiyah ibn Hisham, and he was born in Palmyra, Syria, in the Umayyad Caliphate. His father was a general of the Umayyads, and his mother was a Berber. In 750, the Abbasid Revolution occurred, and people claiming descent from Abbas ibn Shaiba founded the Abbasid Caliphate. Abd-al-Rahman, as a prince of the Umayyads, was targeted by the Abbasids, so he fled with his son Suleyman, his brother Yahya, and his Greek servant Bedr. He left his son with his sisters, but when he was crossing the Euphrates River, he became separated from his brother, who was beheaded by the Abbasids, and his body left to rot. Him and Bedr headed through Palestine, the Sinai, and through Egypt. Ibn Habib, a member of the Fihrids, gave him shelter in Ifriqiya, but he later changed his mind, and Ibn Habib's wife Tekfah hid Abd-al-Rahman under her personal belongings to preventher husband's soldiers from finding them. Abd-al-Rahman and Bedr reached Morocco, and he sent Bedr to make contact with Syrian commanders Obeid Allah ibn Uthman, Abd Allah ibn Khalid, and Yusuf ibn Bukht, and Abd-al-Rahman was invited to al-Andalus. In Malaga, he quickly amassed local support, and he took over much of Spain. Abd-al-Rahman proclaimed himself the leader of the Cordoba Emirate, and the House of Umayyad lived on in Spain. He won a tremendous victory over an Abbasid army of 7,000 troops under al-Ala ibn Mugith sent by al-Mansur to besiege Carmona in 763, defeating them with 700 troops. He sent the generals' heads to al-Mansur while he was in Mecca, and al-Mansur both hated and gained respect for him.

Abd-al-Rahman wished to take the fight east to Baghdad to avenge the deaths of his family members, but internal problems prevented him from doing so. In 778, Charlemagne of Francia invaded Muslim Spain with a large army from France to the north of the Pyrenees, and Charlemagne allied with Barcelona and Zaragoza against the Umayyad emir of Cordoba. In 783 he conquered Zaragoza after his appointed governor al-Husayn of Zaragoza (who was appointed in place of another rebellious governor) declared it an independent city-state. In 786 he began the construction of the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, and he was able to build a large standing army of 40,000 troops consisting mainly of Berbers from North Africa in addition to slaves from elsewhere. He died in 788, and he was succeeded as Emir of Cordoba by Hisham I of Cordoba.